Support for Deprecated File Types

[TomC]

Those of us (& those companies) who’ve been using computers for a decade or two, have unfortunately accumulated a lot of files stored in legacy file types before we had an agreed (& hopefully future proof) Open Document Format to use.

In my case most of those file types are MS Works and StarOffice binary. I don’t need to refer to those old files very often, but when I do, I do. So I keep MS Works etc. installed on the system. When LibreOffice introduced the ability to read MS Works files, it give LO a significant advantage over OpenOffice.org. Now it’s dropped the ability to read StarOffice binary, I need to keep OOO on the system to be able to read those old Star Office files.

I can understand the desire to simplify the work load by dropping support for the old file types, but is it possible either to reinstate support for them, or provide a standalone utility (e.g. a cobbled together one using bits of LO 3.5) that can be used to batch convert the old files into ODF?

[horst]

If you still have a LO3.5.x installer file somewhere you can install it as an “Administrative Installation” and use it as needed. Refer to this wiki how to install it in the different OSes.

I have about 6 different LO versions installed. Only drawback if you start one of this installation it takes very long to start LO.

Addon: Link for older versions:(Index of /libreoffice/old)

[ROSt53]

This is an excellent information for all who have old data formats. I wiil keep my 3.5.7 msi

[qubit1]

@TomC,

I believe that you can access some of these legacy filters by selecting them under ‘optional components’ in the installer:

• I have some old Star Office Writer files, extension .sdw. I could open them in OpenOffice. Is it possible to open them in LibreOffice?

Update:

@ROSt53 asks “in 3.6 there is still the possibility to install filters for older file types. Question are the supported file types the same in 3.5, 3.6 and especially 4.0?”

Good question.

Per the LO 4.0 Releaes Notes

Dropped support for legacy binary StarOffice (version 1.x → 5.x) files.

• Note: the old OpenOffice.org XML file format (.sxw, .sxi etc.) which was used as the default format by StarOffice versions 6 and 7 is still supported.

So I guess the answer is: Yes, we have dropped support for importing certain file formats. I assume this was because of the burden on maintaining the formats, but the devs would know for certain.

I agree that we should try to either

1. Continue some type of in-tree support for these formats (even if it’s just OLD FORMAT → ODF 1.0), or
2. Try to package up some kind of separate tool whose sole purpose is to handle legacy formats we drop from in-tree, or
3. (perhaps the easiest) Provide a ready-to-go VM complete with minimal Ubuntu install + the latest version of LO before we dropped import support for a set of formats.

• We could store a set of these VMs, creating a new one for every release that drops deprecated functionality (or just make a new one for each major release, which would probably be good enough

[ROSt53]

@qubit1 - in 3.6 there is still the possibility to install filters for older file types. Question are the supported file types the same in 3.5, 3.6 and especially 4.0?